Math Circle People

Olga Radko is the founder and director of the LA Math Circle. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2002 specializing in Poisson Geometry, and is currently an Academic Administrator at the UCLA department of Mathematics.

Oleg Gleizer is the Chief Curriculum Developer and the Lead instructor of the Beginners group in the LA Math Circle. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 2001 from Northeastern University of Boston specializing in representation theory and special functions. Oleg sees his mission in inventing ways to present some important parts of modern day Mathematics (and occasionally Physics), typically reserved to college, to the children from age four and up.

Emmanuelle Hodara is the Administrative Assistant. She is a junior biochemistry major at UCLA and has been involved with the Math Circle for over two years.

Circle Docents

Preston Carroll is a second year undergraduate Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics major. Outside of school, he enjoys: playing for the UCLA Ultimate Frisbee team, bouldering, and playing chess. Within mathematics he has a large interest in mathematical modeling and optimization.

Oleg Gleizer One of the greatest mathematicians of the past 20th century, Israel Gelfand, has once told me, ’Oleg, if you understand a math concept, you should be able to explain it to a 4-year-old.’ Inspired by this idea, I teach elements of modern math, typically presented in college, to children age 4 and up. See my book, Modern Math for Elementary Schoolers, for more. The book is a free download at
http://www.naturalmath.com/DeltaStreamMedia/OlegGleizerModernMathematics_12_2011.pdf
It is copy-lefted, so feel free to use for any non-commercial purposes.
I also work as an Adjunct Professor at UCLA Math. Dept.
I have my Ph.D. in Math. from Northeastern University of Boston. I have research papers published in top-ranking journals, including Transactions of the AMS and Advances in Mathematics.

Morgan Joeck Morgan Joeck is excited to be part of the Math Circle again. He teaches algebra and geometry for LAUSD at Bishop Conaty – Our Lady of Loretto. He went to UCLA for his Bachelor’s degree in psychology and Master’s degree in education. Morgan is a member of the California Mathematics Council and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and attends their local and national conferences annually.

Don Laackman is a fifth year graduate student in the in the mathematics department at UCLA interested in in Algebra and Algebraic K-Theory.

Michael Puthawala

Courtney Scott

Ivy Wang is currently a fifth-year undergraduate student at UCLA double majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics. When removed from her natural environment of sitting in front of her computer programming, she enjoys rock climbing at the Wooden Center.